Hyderabad: In a major road accident, four Indians, including three Telugu-speaking individuals, died in a major car accident in Texas on August 30. The victims died when their SUV was rear-ended by a speeding truck on Highway 75 in Anna, Texas, causing the vehicle to burst into flames.
The deceased have been identified as Aryan Raghunath Orampati, of Hyderabad, Farooq Shaik, a friend of Aryan, Lokesh Palacharla, another Telugu speaker and Darshini Vasudevan from Tamil Nadu. The accident occurred at approximately 3.30 pm. The impact was so severe that the vehicle was engulfed in flames, trapping the victims inside and leading to their deaths.
Texas media reports said the four individuals had connected via a carpooling app and were heading to Bentonville. Aryan and Farooq, both residents of Bentonville, were returning from a trip to Dallas, where they had visited Aryan's cousins. Lokesh Palacharla was travelling to Bentonville to meet his wife and Darshini Vasudevan was on her way to visit her uncle.
The intense fire following the accident made the identification of the victims difficult, with authorities relying on details from the carpooling app to determine their identities. Local reports also indicated that traffic had significantly slowed on Highway 75, bringing vehicles to a near standstill. The speeding truck failed to react to the congestion, leading to the fatal crash.
The incident has sent shockwaves through the Indian diaspora in the United States, as several Indians have died in vehicular accidents in the country in the last few months. Recently, three members of an Indian-origin family were killed in a car accident in Houston, Texas. On May 14, three Indian students lost their lives in a major car crash in Alpharetta, Georgia.
